Post 104 positioning for the postseason

Wednesday

Jul 9, 2014 at 2:15 PMJul 9, 2014 at 2:17 PM

By Keith Pearsonkpearson@wickedlocal.com

WALPOLE — The pitching performance James Smith gave the Walpole American Legion Post 104 baseball team on Tuesday was just what it needed as the right-hander scattered five hits and the bats woke up from a slumber that spanned the Independence Day weekend with a 7-0 win over Franklin.

The win snapped a two-game skid over the two teams Post 104 is looking up at in the standings by virtue of percentage points and tiebreakers. Walpole dropped a 3-1 contest in eight innings to Medfield last Thursday and was shut down by Westwood’s Worth Walrod on Monday in 7-0 loss, only getting one hit and two base runners for the contest.

Walpole stood at 13-7 while Medfield and Westwood are 13-6 through play on Tuesday. Medfield swept the three-game series from Westwood and took two of three from Walpole while Westwood swept three from Post 104 should the teams be tied when the regular season ends on Tuesday.

At 12-8, Foxboro sits just two points back of the three leaders and is eight points clear of Franklin for the fourth and final playoff spot in District 6 West.

"Obviously, we were beat from the get go (against Westwood), the Medfield one is the one that kind of stings a little more than (Westwood), but it’s a long season and you have ups and downs," said Walpole coach Chris Costello on Monday. "We’re certainly in a mediocre span right now. Since we started 7-1, we’re basically a .500 team."

While Smith has silenced bats all summer, the spark the offense showed even more encouraging for Walpole on Tuesday as it gears up for the stretch run and the District 6 playoffs, which will be an eight-team double elimination tournament to send a team to the State Final Eight in Sudbury.

Everyone in the lineup had either a hit or scored a run. Smith keyed a three-run first inning with a base hit through the vacated right side to score Ian Fair and Liam McCabe got over to third on the hit-and-run. McCabe scored on a wild pitch and Smith came home on a groundout by James Newman.

Fair had a two-run chop single that bounced over the head of second baseman Colby Lewis in the second that scored Nate Porack and Tim Barry for a 5-0 edge. Drew Dodakian and Smith each added RBI triples later in the contest to pad the lead.

Smith, Bobby Rabaioli and Porack each had two hits in the victory.

Jack Donnelly got touched for six runs – three earned – over five innings in Monday’s loss to Westwood, leaving a lot of pitches up in the strike zone against a solid lineup.

Joe Smith got thrown into the fire in the sixth and yielded a home run to Connor Longley, who was 3-for-3 with three RBI and two runs scored. The 4-5-6 batters in the Westwood lineup were a combined 8-for-11 with five RBI.